Duterte: No proof P6.8-B shabu was in lifters

President Rodrigo Duterte dismissed as speculation the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency's claims that P6.8 billion worth of shabu came into the country in magnetic lifters recently recovered empty in Cavite.

Duterte made the remark in a speech hours after Customs Commissioner Isidro Lapena told a House inquiry that an examination of the lifters showed that it was negative of methamphethamine hydrochloride residue.

"I’d like to address myself to all government agencies. Iyong sabi nila na those they found that the metal... But they opened it, there was none. It was pure speculation," Duterte said.

"They were assuming that for those metal, magnetic contain… So they bore a hole, there was nothing there," he added.

Last week, agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency found lifting equipment in General Mariano Alvarez, Cavite that they believe was used to smuggle shabu. PDEA said the lifters came into the country with the shipment that yielded P4.3 billion worth of shabu at the Manila International Container Port three days earlier.

PDEA raided the warehouse in Barangay F. Reyes after a caretaker informed authorities about the lifters that arrived on June 14. The lifters had reportedly been emptied by the time PDEA operatives got to the warehouse.

No residue of shabu had been found on the lifters but PDEA said K-9 units detected traces of the illegal drug.

House inquiry

But at the motu proprio inquiry of the House Committee on Dangerous Drugs about the incident, Lapeña said that the BOC, personnel from the Philippine National Police and PDEA itself processed the crime scene and the magnetic lifters "but this yielded negative result for the presence of dangerous drugs."

"Based on the result of the laboratory analysis both from PDEA and the PNP, the four magnetic lifters have no presence of dangerous drugs," he added.

Lawyer Ruel Lasala of the PDEA, however, stood by its report and insisted that the four magnetic lifters had traces of illegal drugs.

He explained that their K9 dogs sat down as they sniffed the lifting equipment, signifying that the dogs had identified traces of illegal drugs.

Aside from this, Lasala said that the address of the consignee for the shipment found in Cavite was the same as that of the consignee for the nearly 500 kilograms, or P4.3 billion worth, of shabu that the BOC intercepted at the Manila International Container Port (MICP) days earlier.

"All indicators point to the situation na droga 'yung laman ng metallic lifters," he said.

Director Adrian Albarino of PDEA also said that the shabu intercepted at MICP and the one supposedly contained in containers in Cavite were linked to one another as they have their bill of lading, a document which details the type, quantity and destination of the goods being carried.

"It was indicated doon sa Vecaba Trading [International] yung warehouse, yung address ng consignee nila as the same, doon sa GMA, Cavite," he said.

It was to Vecaba Trading International that the P4.3-billion worth of shabu that the BOC had intercepted was consigned. —NB/JST, GMA News